Compliance with the language policy implementation at the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in South Africa

Abstract

This paper explains the extent to which the Language Policy is implemented at Limpopo Provincial Legislature in South Africa. This is a  case study which was conducted in one province out of nine provinces of South Africa. Limpopo Provincial Legislature was selected due to  its proximity to the researchers. Studies and research conducted so far have shown that since the adoption of the South African  Constitution of 1996, the national government including the Parliament of South Africa are not fully implementing the language policies,  therefore, the need for this study. Data was collected qualitatively through semi-structured interviews conducted with 14 Members of the  Limpopo Provincial legislature. The collected data was analysed thematically, and themes were developed from the research questions.  The study attempted to answer the research questions such as (a) To what extent is the South African language policy being  implemented by Limpopo provincial legislature? (b) What systematic use of languages followed by the Limpopo provincial legislature?  Our findings indicate that the Limpopo Provincial Legislature is largely monolingual, as English remains the defacto language. The study  concludes that other official languages in the province, namely: Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Northern Sotho, and isiNdebele together with  Afrikaans are marginalized in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature, as they are not fully used during debates and in official written  documents. The study recommends that the Limpopo Provincial Legislature should develop strategies and measures for meaningful and  full implementation of the language policy.